Hola MaHigh-School - March 2021

Masiziba: Why I chose A Food is life. It is a need and a necessity. Every day, we have to eat to survive. That is Agriculture. But why I chose this field of study is more of a personal story and I did not realise (until later) that it was always my childhood dream and passion.

My grandparents from both sides of the family were farmers. In every right. They possessed the knowledge of farming and innovated using limited resources to feed their families. This is often termed as subsistence farming. They passed on the knowledge to their children who passed it on to their children and that is where I was introduced to agriculture.

At a very young age, I used to feed the chickens before going to school, count the eggs every time I came back and made sure that the chickens were all ‘okay’.

Then on some days, I would be designated to goats, the garden etc. Each day, I was grasping the preparation, planning and knowledge in addition to falling in love with the process. However, I saw gaps. Gaps I knew I could fill even though I was not sure how exactly.

When the time came to choose careers in high school, we were all attracted to different careers. For the wrong reasons, we focused on the ‘average’ salary in the field of study. Made our ‘popular’ decisions on only that. Not realising what we loved, and what aligned with our abilities.

After some confusion, I was introduced to Agricultural Economics. I knew this is who I am. It spoke of market access, how food